Tree of Memories
by Magi Mana
Summary: Talesverse. One-shot. The gang gathers for their yearly picnic to remember their departed friend.


_**So since yesterday was Memorial Day, I wanted to write something in honor of that. Which led to me thinking about what Yugi and the gang would do to honor Atem after the end of the ceremony. So this story sprouted from that, and it takes place twelve years after The Final Duel. **_

_**And despite my musings on this, I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did, I would have given the show more of an epilogue to show what the cast did with their lives.**_

Tree of Memories

Serenity Taylor let her two-year-old daughter climb into her lap as she set out the food on the picnic blanket. It was a beautiful summer day—not too warm or cold and not a cloud in the sky. She smiled as the little girl's brown hair brushed her cheek. "Having fun, Joan?" The girl giggled in response.

"You're not going to join them?" Seto Kaiba asked from the opposite end of the blanket, his deep blue eyes fixed on the white hair of his wife. Kisara stood with the rest of their group of friends in front of a tall oak tree with a plaque.

Serenity shook her head. "I didn't get the chance to know him that well. I don't think he'd even remember me. Besides…" she glanced to the two-year-old playing with her auburn hair. "I need to keep an eye on this one."

"Just wait until she catches up with the others," Kaiba rolled his eyes and looked at the children playing a little ways away. A small boy with curly blond chased a bigger boy with spikey black hair streaked with magenta and blond bangs. Trailing behind them were two girls—one with spikey brown hair and one with white hair. The brunette jumped on the tri-colored boy, allowing the other two kids to pile on him as well. Serenity's sister-in-law Mai moved closer to make sure they were okay. From their laughter, Serenity was sure they were fine.

"I know," Serenity smiled. "But you actually knew him. Why don't you go?"

Kaiba scowled and glanced back to his daughter. "I don't have anything to say to him. And I don't need to join the dork patrol."

"Even if that dork patrol includes your wife?" the auburn-haired woman teased.

"Shut up," he snapped.

Joan giggled and climbed off Serenity's lap, scooching her way over to the CEO. Cautiously, she gripped the blue sleeve of Kaiba's trench coat and stood up. She reached her small hand towards the card pendant he always wore. "Cawa," she said.

"Card," Kaiba corrected her. Sighing, he pulled her into his lap so she didn't rip off his locket.

Serenity smiled at the sight of the gruff CEO carefully holding the toddler while she fiddled with the pendant. "What?" he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Nothing," she said. "It just that times like this remind me you're not as heartless as you pretend to be."

"Whatever," he rolled his eyes and shifted his hold on the girl. Joan cooed as she found the switch to pop open the locket.

* * *

_We still miss you, Atem._ Yugi Muto put an arm around his wife.

_I hope you're happy._ Tea Muto wiped a tear from her eye and leaned into her husband.

_You better be doing good, Pal, or I'm gonna come knock some sense into you._ Joey Wheeler clenched his fist as he kept his eyes on the tree and plaque.

_We're not ever going to forget you, Pharaoh._ Tristan Taylor kept his expression blank as he remembered his friend.

_We owe you so much, Esprit._ Kisara Kaiba place her hands over her heart, her dragon spirit stirred, responding to her memory of the ancient spirit.

The five friends gripped each other's hands, finding their continued solace in the absence of their friend. They planted the oak tree on the anniversary of their trip to Egypt, and they came to visit it each year on the same day. It was the tradition of their group. Sometimes others who knew him would join them, depending on where they were. But those who inked their hands with the symbol of friendship years ago always came.

"You wanna do the honors, Yuge?" Joey asked.

"Alright," Yugi looked to his friends on each side of him. "Atem, you were everything for us. I don't think there's much at this point we can say that we haven't already said. But you will always be in our hearts. We love you and miss you."

"Always," the other four said at the same time.

"Daddy!" Two children plowed into Yugi, and a third threw himself at Joey.

"Aw, come here, kiddo," Joey scooped up his son, Max. The three-year-old laughed as Joey tossed him into the air and caught him.

Yugi situated his six-year-old son, Atem, and four-year-old daughter, Mana, on each hip. "Daddy, I wanna climb the tree!" the tri-color haired boy said.

"Me too!" the brunette grinned and held him tight. "I wanna climb all the way to the top!"

"Not right now," Yugi carried them away from the tree and towards the picnic blanket where Serenity and Mai were preparing the food and Kaiba entertained two little girls. Three-year-old Airi giggled as she sat on Kaiba's shoulders. Two-year-old Joan sat in his lap playing with his card pendant. "Are you two hungry?"

"Yes!" Atem and Mana scrambled down and ran to the picnic blanket. Max fought his way out of his father's grip to chase after the Muto siblings.

"They sure love to eat," Tea laughed.

"I think they're just hoping Uncle Joey made cake," Yugi smirked and looked to his friend.

"Then they're going to be real happy," Joey grinned. "Mai said she was craving strawberry cake, so I tried a new recipe. I think it turned out well."

"Then let's get going," Kisara led the way to the picnic.

* * *

"So good!" Mana declared in between bites of strawberry cake.

"Yummy!" Max ate his almost as fast as the four-year-old.

"Slow down, you two," Mai chastised her son and honorary niece.

"Okay, Mommy/Aunt Mai," the two children lessened their frantic eating of the sweet dessert.

"I swear he's just like you," Mai rolled her violet eyes at her husband.

"And I think Mana likes mimicking him," Tea chuckled next to her.

"Hey, I'm not that bad," Joey grumbled at them as he helped himself to another piece of cake. "Besides, I think it's great they like my cooking."

"They like to eat sweets," the two women said at the same time. They burst out laughing.

"It's not bad, mutt," Kaiba watched his daughter gleefully eat her piece. "I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks."

"Watch it, Rich Boy," Joey glared at the CEO. "It's a well-known rule to be nice to those who make your food."

"Oh, please," Kaiba rolled his eyes. "I know you wouldn't do anything to it just to get me. You would risk the kids getting pulled into it." His glare intensified. "And if you did anything to hurt Airi, it would be your last day, _mutt_."

"Grr… Kaiba," Joey clenched his fist.

"Enough," Mai and Kisara pacified their husbands.

"Today isn't a day to fight," Kisara's sapphire eyes flicked between the two men. Even years later, they still couldn't seem to get along.

"How about we all go around and share a memory of Yami?" Tea suggested, using the name the spirit went by when he was among them. She hoped it would diffuse the Wheeler-Kaiba tension.

"That sounds great, Tea," Yugi smiled.

"Yeah," Tristan agreed. "I'll go first. I remember hanging out at the arcade back then. You guys would rotate who was playing the games. After a while, I could tell who I was fighting—your styles were just a bit different."

"Yeah, Yami was the more aggressive fighter," Yugi chuckled. "Especially since he button mashed a bit at first as he learned the controls."

"You always just waited until you could use your ultimate to kill me," Tristan rolled his eyes.

"I wish I could have known him more," Serenity smiled and looked down at her lap. I never knew the difference between you two. Joey tried explaining it to me after Battle City, but I couldn't wrap my head around it at the time. But looking back, I think I can pick out a few instances where it was him instead of you. That was him that took the Ra's attack during Mai's duel, right?"

"Yeah," Yugi admitted. "He wouldn't even let me shoulder some of that either. He wasn't really able to come out again until we went looking for Bakura."

"That's also one of mine," Mai spoke up. "When… I was losing myself in that Shadow Game, he helped me fight back. I always thought it was you, especially since it reminded me of when you saved my star chips at Duelist Kingdom. It wasn't until after the… Orichalcos incident that I started to understand there were two of you. But I'll never forget him—or you, Yugi—stepping in to help me."

"What are friends for, Mai?"

"I always enjoyed conspiring with him," Kisara chimed in, suppressing a giggle. "We'd bounce so many ideas on how to get Yugi and Tea together, at least until Yugi forced his way out."

"Oh come on," Yugi groaned. Both he and Tea flushed red at how awkward they were back in high school.

"Oh, it's not like Tea didn't tease me about Seto every opportunity she got," Kisara glared at her friends. "But Yami made it easy to enact some ideas."

"Man, that's great," Joey laughed. "We were all waiting to for you two to get together."

"Shut up, Joey," Tea's bright blue glare turned on the blond.

"All right, all right," Joey raised his hands in defense. "It's my turn. I think I really got to know him more during the Orichalcos trouble. When you were gone, Yuge, man, he struggled. I had to knock some sense into him to get him to keep going. But that kind of changed my outlook on how he was. Before that, he came off as a more confident you, but that's when it hit me how much not knowing his past actually hurt him."

"He never did like people knowing his insecurities," Yugi agreed. "Even with me, he tried to act like it didn't bother him. He didn't want anyone to worry about him. One of the hardest things to teach him was that it was okay for him to want things for himself. He always thought that since he was a spirit, he was intruding. And he blamed himself for the trouble we got into."

"You dorks got into trouble all by yourselves," Kaiba commented.

"That we did," Yugi chuckled.

"I guess it's my turn," Tea said. "And I know how this might sound, but I did enjoy the day Yugi arranged for us to hang out. I mean, I was a confused teenager at the time and didn't really know how I felt, but we ended up having a fun day as friends. I still remember the look on his face when he showed up at the plaza and just started yelling at the Millennium Puzzle."

"Yeah, that was funny," Yugi laughed. "I stuck around long enough to see that before retreating into the Puzzle."

"But that wasn't quite as funny as seeing birds land in his hair," Tea snorted. "Here we are, walking by the park, and this sweet old lady accidently flings her birdseed at us. Then the pigeons went after the pieces that stuck in his hair. Poor Yami didn't know what to do. He just kind of froze, somewhat crouched, as these birds just dug their claws in and ate from his hair."

"Man, I wish I could have seen that," Tristan roared with laughter.

"Same," Joey fell over laughing.

"That's why I found birdseed in my hair that night," Yugi leaned back on his hands. "Yami said he didn't know where it came from. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now I know."

"Yeah, I tried so hard not to laugh, and failed," Tea admitted. "But I did help him chase the pigeons off. And the old lady was so apologetic. We had to tell her over and over again it was fine. At that point, any dignity Yami had left was gone."

"What about you, Seto?" Kisara nudged her husband. "Do you want to share anything?"

"No," Kaiba frowned.

"Okay, Seto," the white-haired woman relented. "Hey, do you guys remember…"

* * *

Atem and Mana chased each other around the park with Max and Airi trailing behind them. They grew bored of the adults talking after they finished Joey's cake and started playing Tag.

"I'm gonna get you, Mana!" Airi promised. She sped up to catch the brunette.

"Not today!" Mana sped up, passing her brother.

"Got you!" Airi tagged Atem and darted off.

Atem stopped and eyed the other three. He fixed his eyes on his sister and charged after her, using his six-year-old legs to close the distance between them. "Tag!" he caught Mana's shoulder.

"Aw!" Mana pouted as her brother retreated from her. Spotting curly blond hair not fair away, she chased after Max.

"Can't catch me!" he taunted her.

"Yes I can!" she argued. She gained on him and tagged his back.

"Mana, Atem!" Yugi called to them.

"Max!" Mai yelled for the blond.

"Airi!" Kisara gestured her daughter over.

"Coming!" the kids yelled all at once.

Atem turned to look at the tree his family was looking at earlier, with the metal display in front of it. He stood on tiptoe to see the words, but he only knew some of them from school.

"Come on, Atem, we're leaving," Yugi scooped him up.

"Daddy, what does it say?" Atem pointed to the words.

"It says 'In memory of the friend who brought us together. May the Heart of the Cards always guide him.'" Yugi answered.

"Is the tree a friend?" the six-year-old asked.

"In a way," Yugi shifted his son so he could see the plaque better. "Mommy and I had a friend a long time ago, but he had to go away. We planted this tree to remember him."

"I wanna meet him," Atem declared.

"I wish you could," Yugi held his son close, remembering the friend his son was named for. "He would have loved to meet you, Atem."

"Can you tell me a story about him?"

"Maybe when we get home," Yugi answered.

"Okay," Atem let his father carry him to their car.

_**So, yeah, they planted a tree and visit that each year. I thought it was a good tradition for the group to follow and honor the Pharaoh. I also have this headcanon where Joey is pretty good at cooking. He did cook their food at Duelist Kingdom, and based on his situation growing up he kind of had to make his own food (since his dad obviously wasn't going to). Anyway, let me know what you think, and I'll see you next time.**_


End file.
